Naval vessels traditionally have been designed to be stand-alone entities capable of performing missions with direct line of sight. As the cost to build and maintain ships becomes more expensive, a substantial risk is involved in performing missions directly. This has contributed to the rise of so-called “mothership” vessels being used as a staging and deployment platform for smaller marine vehicles and equipment such as Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs), Combat Rubber Raiding Crafts (CRRCs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) or Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), and small-submersibles, among others. These allow for over the horizon mission capability with mothership support without risking the larger mothership vessel itself. In order to accommodate these smaller marine vehicles, specialized launch and recovery equipment is designed and incorporated into the mothership vessel arrangement. Vessels such as the freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) have limited space and ability to launch these smaller marine vehicles, which creates a need for specialized, rapid, compact, and cost-effective launch, recovery, and handling systems (LRHS). Such systems are typically custom-designed to fit the mothership vessel and therefore difficult to offer as a standard design.
Handling multiple waterborne vehicles on board a ship is not an uncommon practice. Some ships have utilized multiple fixed-angle ramps in order to accommodate more than one RHIB vehicle at a time. Still others have utilized a conveyor system to transport a RHIB vehicle from a launch/recovery location to a separate stowage location within the ship. Overhead, gantry, and davit cranes are also frequently utilized to move vehicles within a ship. Davit cranes typically launch and recover RHIBs over the port or starboard sides of the ship, and utilize the same crane footprint for stowage. Overhead and/or gantry cranes can maneuver vehicles within the interior spaces of a ship and sometimes extend out of the stern or side door to launch vehicles.